The older I become, the more I realize that drawing is the most important of all the problems of picture-making.
- Joaquin Sorolla

Art is, after all, only a trace — like a footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness.
- Robert Henri

Friday, May 28, 2010

Alexander Creswell

Alexander Creswell is a well known English watercolorist, carrying on in the traditions of the country in which watercolor first reached acceptance as a major art medium.

He is noted for his association with British royalty, painting the Windsor Castle Royal Collection fire and restoration in a book Out of the Ashes and traveling as official artist with the Prince of Wales.

The images on his website are found in the sales gallery. He places emphasis on his watercolors and drawings of sailing yachts, showing them first in the gallery. Though these are beautifully done, they are not subjects I find personally compelling.

I much prefer his urban landscapes of Venice, Florence and other places in Italy, as well as France, the UK and locations in the Middle East. These owe much to John Singer Sargent’s luminous watercolors of Venice, but of course this is a Good Thing.

You can skip ahead to the landscapes by going to page 10 in the numbered navigation at the bottom of the pages. It reverts to sailing subjects again after a while, and picks back up in Italy around 21 and again around 27 (this may change as new images are added to the galleries).

You can also see a smaller selection of his urban landscapes on the Portland Gallery site.

His watercolors capture that wonderful brilliant sunlight associated with the Mediterranean basin, whether in the intricate buildings of Venice or the rough stones of ancient ruins in Oman, rich with shimmering colors and light-filled compositions.

Unfortunately, most of the images on his site are watermarked, though not so egregiously as to make them unsuitable for viewing.

Creswell also does large scale banners and hangings of his watercolor images that are used like murals. The gallery for these is accessed through an alternate entry from his site’s home page.